Rainton Meadows and Mallygill Woods

Rainton Meadows and Mallygill Woods 6.5ml

Very little blog activity due to a variety of reasons so no serious walking has been done for a while. This has been a cause for concern as our intentions are to walk “The Camino” (well the last 100km to be precise) and gain our Compostela at Santiago. This will be happening mid September 2013.

With this very much in mind we have to start regular outings. My trusty companion was given the task of plotting courses, planning routes and working out walks to get us “Camino” fit.

Our outing today began at the nature reserve Rainton Meadows, http://www.durhamwt.co.uk/2011/07/rainton-meadows/  a popular local spot and ideal place to introduce young children to wild life on a sunny day.   

Walking through the reserve we passed the lakes with their usually residents, swans, Canada geese and goslings, oyster catchers, coots and moorhens an excellent opportunity for my companion to test his new binoculars.

There was a steady climb as we left the park and took the path towards East Rainton, along this path we spotted in full bloom the  Northern Marsh Orchid, also dog rose, Campion and gorse were among the abundance of early summer flowers. 

At this point we joined the Red Clover walk and continued along towards West Rainton and across the fields to Mallygill Woods.

We left the bright sun shine and entered the darker, damp, musty woods and soon came upon a magical glen, steps took us down a steep slope across a wooden bridge and as far as the eye could see the floor was carpeted in flowering wild garlic, it was as if we had stumbled upon a winter land without going through a wardrobe! 

Leaving the woods we passed Woodside farm heading towards Leamside where we stopped for a little refreshment. Our path continued through the village across the waist high field of gold, due to the buttercups, to the disused railway track which eventually led us back to the nature reserve.

Also identified on our walk the speckled wood, orange tip and wall brown butterflies.